LINDEN - Lisa Maldonado sat in the middle of a high school gymnasium facing a Superior Court judge.

A county sheriff's deputy stood by and an audience of hundreds of teenagers watched Maldonado be sentenced for drinking and driving and witnessed her goal of joining the military slip away.

"Don't drink and drive" is a message drilled into teens over and over, but in an effort to make it stick, local attorneys and Superior Court Judge Richard Vlavianos take the court to schools and conduct DUI hearings in the county Superior Court system's "Choices and Consequences" program.

What might have appeared to be staged Monday was a genuine court hearing set up at Linden High School.

"We learned a long time ago that we can't scare you into doing the right thing," Chief Deputy District Attorney Scott Fichtner said. "All we can do is provide you the information and hope that in the future if you are confronted with a situation of being in a car or driving yourself that you will make the right decision.

"Nobody wants to get that call in the middle of the night to their house of someone saying 'this is the California Highway Patrol. I'm calling about your wife, your husband, or your daughter or your son.' It's the worst possible thing that can happen."

Fichtner represented the county prosecutor's office in charging 20-year-old Maldonado, who agreed to have her case unfold in front of students in hopes they heed her warning.

Maldonado, who was represented by Janell Somera, said she was looking forward to becoming part of the U.S. Army before she made a crucial mistake one night that changed her future.

After drinking with friends, she got hungry in the middle of the night and decided to drive to McDonald's intoxicated.

"I can't join (the Army) anymore because I have a DUI," she told the students.

The Linden teens fixed their eyes on Maldonado as a deputy handcuffed her and escorted her out of the building after the sentencing.

Vlavianos sentenced her to three years' probation and one day in jail and ordered her to pay a $2,825 fine.

If that wasn't enough of a reality check, Vlavianos played a film that featured stories of local tragedies caused by drunken drivers.

"It's the most unnatural thing in the whole world to lose somebody your age," Vlavianos said.

Among the accounts was the horrific death of 16-year-old Nicole Johnson, of Escalon in 2003. Johnson was the passenger of a drunken driver who crashed at high speed. She was ejected from the vehicle in the crash.

The injuries to Johnson's head were so severe and shocking, that her father prayed God would take her. "Because there was hardly anything left of her head," her mother, Karen Johnson, says in the video.

Johnson is still reeling from her daughter's untimely death.

"Every day I scream her name ... there are times I cry so hard I can't breathe and I lie on the floor curled in a ball crying and screaming for my little girl," Johnson says in the video.

Monday's on-campus court session seemed to hit home with students, such as Molly Crivello, a senior at the high school.

What she took from it: "That even if we are with someone or see someone leaving a party I need to try to take away their keys."

The story of Johnson's death had an impact on Crivello.

"It's scary to hear what the families had to say," Crivello, 18, said. "I couldn't imagine doing that to somebody's family or to my own family."

Sahib Sidhu, also a senior, said the program showed him: "If you drink and drive, you might not get a second chance at life."

"If you get in a car with someone who is drinking and driving, it puts you at risk, as well as everyone else," Sidhu, 17, said.

Much of the information was new to 16-year-old junior Sarah Armanino, she said.

"But I do see a lot of my friends party and it hits you in the heart," Armanino said.

Armanino became emotional, she said, because she related to Maldonado. Armanino also wants to join the military after high school.

"I didn't even know the girl that got sentenced, but the fact is she had her entire life planned out," Armanino said. "She was going into the military ... and the fact that she can't go anymore, it like broke my heart."

Contact reporter Jennie Rodriguez-Moore at (209) 943-8564 or jrodriguez@recordnet.com. Follow her at recordnet.com/courtsblog and on Twitter @TheRecordCourts.